One Eye Shut, the October exhibition at Hammond Regional Arts Center, was curated by LSU School of Art photography professor Thomas Neff. The exhibition will run October 4–26, 2013. An opening reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, October 4.

One Eye Shut features the current photographic work of six MFA candidates at LSU: Andrea L. Barbier, Kimberly Jones, Sarah Kolac, Ian C. Minich, Jim Osborne, and Randi M. Willett.

Working with the French photographic process Mordançage, Andrea L. Barbier produces reconstructed images that investigate the internal landscape.

Kimberly Jones considers how vestiges of technology past and present relate to and reference the human figure to define a modern identity.

Sarah Kolac exhibits black-and-white landscape images created in 2013 during LSU’s Art in Ireland program at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland.

One-of-a-kind figurative portraits are offered by Ian C. Minich, who explores the nature of being human through emotion and narrative, utilizing the 19th-century wet plate collodion tintype process.

Jim Osborne visits the extant Civil War fortresses that dot the Louisiana coast, offering sensitive views of these historic structures in rapid decline.

Randi M. Willett composes floating imagery of herself and her twin sister in scenes that evoke ethereal or nostalgic qualities.

“This exhibition is a great opportunity for our students to share their unique projects with a new audience. It’s also a chance to highlight the range of approaches available to students who wish to pursue graduate study in photography at LSU—from 19th-century alternative processes to various modes of archival digital production,” said Neff.

About Thomas NeffThomas Neff received a BA in studio art from the University of California at Riverside and a MFA from the University of Colorado and has been a faculty member in photography at the LSU School of Art since 1982. Working primarily with a 5 x 7 camera, Neff’s focus for the past forty years has been people, landscape, and architecture in the United States, Italy, Ireland, China, and Japan. Holding Out and Hanging On: Surviving Hurricane Katrina, Neff’s series of portraits and narratives of New Orleans citizens who didn’t evacuate during Hurricane Katrina, was published by the University of Missouri Press in 2007. Neff’s images are housed in the permanent collections of the California Museum of Photography, the Houston Museum of Modern Art, the Louisiana State Museum, and the Spencer Museum, and in numerous university and private collections.

About Hammond Regional Arts CenterThe Hammond Regional Arts Center (HRAC) supports, promotes, and coordinates visual, performing, and literary arts in Tangipahoa and surrounding parishes. The center’s primary mission is to enrich lives through quality arts education, to develop an appreciation of the arts within individuals, and to introduce the public to professional exhibitions, performances, and literature. The Hammond Regional Arts Center is supported, in part, by a grant from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, in cooperation with the Louisiana Division of the Arts; the Office of Cultural Development; the Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism; and the Louisiana State Arts Council. The gallery is located at 217 East Thomas Street in Hammond, Louisiana. Gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, visit hammondarts.org.

About LSU School of ArtThe LSU School of Art combines the best of both worlds: the resources and faculty of a large liberal arts institution and the personal attention that comes in a close-knit community. Students in the School of Art develop specialized skills while experimenting with various mediums, exploring their own creative intuition, and studying art history and contemporary art theory. Education comes from intensive critiques, working studio classes, dedicated professors, and engagement with the larger arts community through a curriculum that combines academic teaching and hands-on experiences, both on and off campus. For more information, visit art.lsu.edu.